[Lord Snooty]

Bristol City v Huddersfield Town
The FA Cup 3rd round
Saturday January 5th - 17:30 ko
at Ashton Gate

Huddersfield Town travel south to play Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday evening at the start of our annual FA Cup adventure. And we go there on the back of a club record disastrous run of 8 consecutive defeats. And what defeats they've been. You can excuse the losses at Arsenal and Manchester Utd, but 6 of those 8 defeats have been against teams we either beat last season or are teams in the relegation fight with us. We were absolutely brilliant at Wolves in the game before this run started. So what went wrong? The injury to Aaron Mooy? It certainly hasn't helped. Bad luck? Bad referees? Certainly haven't helped.
So where now? Well the league's gone now. We can't possibly escape this. After Cardiff next week, we play Man City, Everton, Chelsea and Arsenal. Not a bleedin' chance, mate. We'll be down before Easter.
So seeing as we still have a Premier League squad, capable of pulling off great performances like the one at Molineux, why not put everything we have now into winning the FA Cup? Relegated teams have won it before. Wigan in 2013. Why not us?
We may never get a better chance.

Tickets: are very reasonably priced at £12 - Adults, £8 - Over-65s, £8 – Under-22s, £5 - Under-19s. What's more, coach travel to the match is only £5. If you fancy it, coaches leave Canalside at 11am.
Please note that there will be NO pay on the day available to Town fans, so any supporters wishing to attend the game should buy their ticket before 4pm on Friday.

A brief history of Bristol City: Formed in 1894, they played in the Southern League before joining the Football League in 1901. They won the 2nd Division title in 1906 and followed that by finishing runners up of Division 1 in their first season of top flight football. They finished runners up in their only FA Cup Final to date in 1910, losing 0-1 to Manchester Utd at Crystal Palace. They were relegated from the 1st Division in 1911 and it would take them 65 years to get back up again.

That promotion in 1976 came under the management of Alan Dicks. The previous 65 years had been yoy-yoing between the 2nd Divison and the 3rd Division South. They stayed in the top flight for 4 seasons, but once relegated, they just kept on falling and by the start of the 1982/83 season they were playing 4th Division football for the first time.

They have spent the rest of their time going up and down and have been members of the Championship now since 2015 after winning the League 1 title. They have never won a major trophy, but do have some minor medals in their honours list. Three Football League Trophy wins, beating Bolton in 1986, Carlisle in 2003 and most recently in 2015 when they beat Walsall 2-0 with goals from Aden Flint and Mark Little. They also won the Welsh Cup in 1934 (I know they're not!) and the Anglo-Scottish Cup in 1977 after they beat St Mirren in a 2 legged final 3-2 on aggregate.

Head to Head



Town lead in the overall head to head with 25 wins to City's 20, with 11 draws. That's overall, in the FA Cup it's one win each.

That first FA Cup meeting of the two clubs was in the 1919/20 season, a famous season in Huddersfield Town's history. It was at the semi final stage and was played at Stamford Bridge. Both teams were in the 2nd Division and the match itself was described as lack lustre, but Town won it 2-1 with both our goals coming from Sammy Taylor. He went on to score 41 goals that season as Town went from near financial ruin early in the season, almost swallowed up by the newly formed Leeds United, to promotion and an FA Cup Final, where we got beat by Aston Villa 0-1.

The second meeting came in the 2000/01 season, a complete reverse of the 1919/20 season. We started that season in high hopes after just missing the Play Offs in the previous season, but soon plummeted and got shut of manager Steve Bruce. Lou Macari was in charge when 3rd Division Bristol City rolled into the MacAlpine Stadium in January for a 3rd round match. And they left with a 2-0 win with goals from Simon Clist and Peter Beadle. We finished the season off by getting relegated and in serious financial difficulty. Let's hope defeat in this, the first FA Cup meeting at their ground, doesn't follow that particular pattern.

It doesn't look good with our recent record down at Ashton Gate. The last two visits there have both finished in 0-4 defeats, the most recent one being a Friday night Sky match in which Jonathan Hogg left the field with what at first was diagnosed as a fractured neck, but thankfully wasn't.

So what's happening at Ashton Gate?  Still managed by little toss pot Lee Johnson, the former Yeovil Town midfielder. He spent most of his playing career playing for teams managed by his dad, Gary Johnson. One of those matches, in 2006 as a Bristol City player, he started a fight with Town manager Peter Jackson, which ended with Jacko almost strangling the little shit. Jacko got sent to the stands and a touchline ban. Johnson got away with it. Nasty little turd. Never liked him.
Anyway, after playing, he managed Oldham and then Barnsley, who he left in February 2016 to take over at Bristol City after they sacked Steve Cotterill.

Their playing squad contains two ex Town players. One is another little toss pot, Jack Hunt. He came through the Town Academy, making his debut in the FA Cup match down at Arsenal, going on to make 102 appearances for us. He hit the big time in 2013 when he signed for Premier League side Crystal Palace, but despite endearing himself to the locals by saying what a fantastic club Palace was, compared to Huddersfield, he never played in the big league and still hasn't. He last crossed our path in the Play Off semi finals playing for Sheffield Wednesday, who he left in the summer to join the Robins for an undisclosed fee.

The other is Jamie Paterson who came to us on loan from Nottingham Forest in 2015/16, having scored twice against us the previous season. He scored 8 goals in his season long loan, two of those goals, as you will see in the list below, were in the FA Cup, both against Reading. He was the last signing of the Chris Powell era and although I think David Wagner wanted to sign him, he went back at the end of the season and then made a permanent move to Ashton Gate.

Recent form: Town are 20th in the Premier League with 10 points. Bristol City are 11th in the Championship with 38 points.



Last 6 matches:

Arsenal 1-0 Town
Town 0-1 Newcastle
Town 1-3 Southampton (Billing)
Man Utd 3-1 Town (Zanka)
Fulham 1-0 Town
Town 1-2 Burnley (Mounie)

Birmingham 0-1 City (Diedhiou)
City 2-2 Norwich (Diedhiou, O'Dowda)
Derby 1-1 City (Paterson)
City 1-1 Brentford (Pisano)
City 1-0 Rotherham (Webster)
Stoke 0-2 City (Diedhiou, O'Dowda)

Town's recent FA Cup campaigns:

2017/18:
R3: Bolton 2-1 Town (van La Parra, Williams)
R4: Town 1-1 Birmingham (Mounie)
R4r: Birmingham 1-4 (aet) Town (Roberts og, Mounie, van La Parra, Ince)
R5: Town 0-2 Man Utd

2016/17:
R3: Town 4-0 Port Vale (Payne 2, Palmer, Bunn)
R4: Rochdale 0-4 Town (Quaner, Brown pen, Hefele 2)
R5: Town 0-0 Man City
R5r: Man City 5-1 Town (Bunn)

2015/16:
R3: Town 2-2 Reading (J.Paterson, Wells pen)
R3r: Reading 5-2 Town (J.Paterson, Smith)

2014/15:
R3: Town 0-1 Reading

2013/14:
R3: Grimsby 2-3 Town (Norwood, M.Paterson, Thomas og)
R4: Town 0-1 Charlton

2012/13:
R3: Charlton 0-1 Town (Beckford)
R4: Town 1-1 Leicester (Novak pen)
R4r: Leicester 1-2 Town (Clayton, Scannell)
R5: Town 1-4 Wigan (Novak)

[theo_luddite]

Some of Town's performances are making me lose the will to live at the moment and I can't be the only Town fan feeling that way. The Cup gives us a chance to see whether or not we can put a winning (EVEN DRAWING WOULD BE AN IMPROVEMENT) run together and get some spirit back in the camp. Mounié's goal should have been the signal to push on but no we let Burnalee straight back in again.

I can see this going the same way as Burnalee tbh, we seem to either bury them or they bury us. One of 5 games pushed to a 17:30 kick off so they can be watched by an "International audience". Well they seem to be queuing up to miss this one.



Blackpool v Arsenil on the other hand - BT Sports and a list of countries as long as your arm. http://www.livesoccertv.com/match/319244...s-arsenal/
What are the FA thinking? Might be half a sniff of seeing the goals (if any) on the Beeb website shortly after they go in, but don't bank on it.

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Oh by the way - you can listen to Oggy common tatering on Radio Local on that t'interweb. They are allowed to broadcast these games, if you can stay awake long enough & that late on a Saturday evening listening to Town play that is.

[JUSTASILLYOLDGIT]

Think I will be betting my house on a Brizzle win. Can't see owt else I'm afraid to say!

[WakeyTerrier]

Won't be a problem finding a stream with it being on in Canada and the USA.

Brizzle win, I've given up hope

[jjamez]

If anyone wants to find a stream then hesgoal will be your best shot

[theo_luddite]

Won't be a problem finding a stream with it being on in Canada and the USA.

Brizzle win, I've given up hope

Other than those are premium paid for streaming sites rather than terrestrial or cable that also happen to put an interweb feed out there that the likes of TVTap pick up on.

[theo_luddite]

Just been doing the pre-match email I send to my nephew down in the wrong hemisphere and Town converts over the pond. Last and only time we played Brizzle in t'Cup was January 6th 2001 - yes THAT season. The Big Sulk (yes THAT Steve Bruce) had gone and been replaced by Lou Macari and we were heading for the trap door. Brizzle were a division below us, bumbling around in mid-table obscurity, just like they are now. Some of the great football clubs that were in (what is now the Chumpionship) with us back then were

Stockport County
Bolton Wanderers
Wimbledon (pick between AFC Wimbledon and MK Dons)
Barnsley
Grimsby Town
Sheffield United (I still see that penalty by their keeper at Wembley heading for the moon)
Preston Both Ends
Crewe
Portsmouth
Tranmere Rovers
Gillingham
Blackburn Rovers

Given that the players had little motivation, thanks to Mr. Rubery and Mr. Bruce having a minor???? spat about spending his annual budget every month, and something to do with selling his wife's boyfriend (allegedly) to Ipswich the season before (though we did actually win some games in December that season) and it was the following season before we stopped paying them at all - we must have been bad to finish below most of that lot. Thank fook I was still in Canada. I left for there in the mid 90's with us in the second tier, dreaming of promotion to the promised land. I came back for the 2002/3 season, returned to being a season ticket holder and watching the direst of dire football I've ever seen us play under Mick Wadsworth, including the Division 4 years before Mick Buxton rescued us. I wondered why I'd come home with what was to follow. You know the rest.

Mick Wadsworth eh? We sacked him but as we couldn't afford to pay him off we re-instated him.
Don't think he actually got paid like the rest of the players anyway until we were pulled out of the mire by Ken Davy and we had to pay off our "football debts".

You know looking at all that - and as much as things are pretty ropy right now, they are no'but positively rosy compared to the turn of the century.

[Lord Snooty]

Kids today don't know they're born, theo. Should make the most of this big league stuff while they can.

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Oh and by the way, not the only time we'd played Brizzle int cup. I refer you to the Head to Head section in main article.

[theo_luddite]

The Head2Head site I use must be telling lies then Snoots. Sorry - thought I'd scanned yours for that fact and didn't spot it first time. That or they don't go back as far as 1900 & frozen-to-death
https://www.soccerbase.com/teams/head_to...m2_id=1309

[Lord Snooty]

The Head2Head site I use must be telling lies then Snoots. Sorry - thought I'd scanned yours for that fact and didn't spot it first time. That or they don't go back as far as 1900 & frozen-to-death
https://www.soccerbase.com/teams/head_to...m2_id=1309

That's the one I use, theo. Think you need some new readers.